Geir Pavla, a former SEAL, has recovered from the damage done when his squad's truck drove over an antitank landmine more than two years ago. Six other team-mates were also badly injured, the seventh--Mouse--dead, in what their team leader realized later had to be a trap. Geir has been trying to uncover details about Mouse's history. The more he discovers, the more he fears their newest member was nothing of the man they thought they knew and believed they could trust. Morning Blossom runs a B&B in San Diego that her father co-owns. Unfortunately, he wants to sell despite that the business is the safety net she needs to pursue her passion for painting. While she longs to make a career of what's only ever been a hobby, she isn't sure she has the ability to be a success. Morning has avoided long-term relationships after one man who'd stayed at the B&B wanted to take up perpetual residence despite her objections. Geir, however, is someone she could grow used to having around permanently. While Geir doesn't understand her naïveté in letting strangers invade her world, Morning's innocence and belief in the goodness of humanity attracts him. Geir's innate protectiveness becomes much more than either of them anticipated when the nastiness of his world inevitably spills into hers...